Here's Why (and How) I Became a Progressive Person/Christian/Voter

While I grew up with conservative sensibilities all around me, from the years 2003-2011 I slowly shifted to become more progressive. Here's why.

A few weeks ago I wrote this reflection about a study that showed a well-being gap between conservatives and progressives. In short, the data shows that conservatives tend to report being/feeling happier, while progressives report greater levels of depression, anxiety, and overall sadness.

On one hand I get it. It makes sense to me for a variety of reasons, not least of which (and many of you commented/messaged me this as well) is because it seems that conservatives are more likely to look away from some of the hard data that reveals the injustices happening right under their noses, while progressives tend to dive into such material head first. As such, I suppose it makes sense that the more you interact with and are confronted by just how bad things can be for some people, that’s going to take its toll on you, whereas the proverbial “ignorance is bliss” might be impacting conservative minded folk on average more often.

But I don’t think that alone explains this phenomenon, nor do I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the more you wake up to things such as climate change, systemic injustices along racial lines, the dissolution of gains made by civil rights, and other progressive points of focus, then that will just inherently lead a person to greater levels of anxiety and overall sadness.

In other words, some people stare at problems and get overwhelmed by them, while others are energized to find solutions.

Some people see issues of injustice as cause for despair, while others see cause for action.

Some people get super bummed out when they hear bad news, while others take the news as a wake up call to see just what can be done.

Perhaps it’s due to their personality, their experiences, or their current life situation, but I know some progressives who lean more toward the former in all the examples above. Meaning, they get paralyzed by bad news, and bend toward the sad sads. Meanwhile, other progressive friends and colleagues of mine are energized to make a difference, and such energy pulls them away from the above mentioned anxiety, depression, and overall sadness that marks many progressives.

I ended the above article with what I think is a big factor at play in all this: hope.

To quote myself (lol),

Doing this kind of work, where we are routinely saturated with

• how things are broken,

• where the issues are

• as we try and face realities that we’ve long been ignorant of

• as we wake up to injustices all around us

• as we evaluate systems and audit processes that are in dire need of repair

the question feels all the more imperative: are we doing so with hope in our hearts Or are we letting the daunting situations and the weight of the tasks pull us in to a despair?

If our own well-being matters (and I think it does and ought), then how might we make a concerted effort to either instill hope and/or retain hope into our consciousness so that as we do our reforming and renewing work we do not sacrifice our happiness along with it?

Reflecting on my own life (both now as a progressive leaning person, and back in the day when I first started becoming more liberal/progressive), I feel as though it was hope that both pushed me toward and motivated me within a more progressive worldview. I got in to the river of liberal/progressive ideas precisely because I was optimistic about the ways we can improve the quality of life for people and for creation.

To put it bluntly:

I’m a progressive because I believe in progress.

My journey into progressivism involved a series of incremental steps through different aspects of life, each adding more expansiveness to my existence. I can trace this evolution as follows, where I began to see hope for progress in:

1. My family life

2. My theological paradigm

3. Politics

4. Society

Progress in My Family Life

My hope for a better world began very personally in 2003